2d • General discussion
Your 500-Word Prompt Is The Problem
My cold email prompt was 487 words. Audience context. Tone guidelines.
Vocabulary patterns. Banned phrases. A complete map of how to sound like me.
The output? Generic garbage I'd banish to spam.
So I deleted it. Started over with four sentences.
Suddenly: usable.
Here's the thing nobody warns you about—AI doesn't process instructions like humans. Give it 15 constraints and it has to prioritize. And it picks wrong. Constantly.
Your carefully-worded instruction about avoiding clichés? Deprioritized. Your tone examples? Buried under the avalanche of demands.
The fix is embarrassingly simple: separate identity from task.
🧉 Identity documentation (your Voiceprint) = comprehensive. Who you are as a writer. Reference material AI always has access to.
🧉 Task prompts = minimal. Four elements max. One sentence each.
Most people conflate these. They try to establish identity AND define the task AND set constraints AND specify format—all in one massive prompt.
That's where everything falls apart.
New article breaks down the 4-element task prompt structure and why your detailed prompts are fighting themselves.
What's your most over-engineered prompt disaster? Looking back, how much was identity documentation crammed into a task request?
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Your 500-Word Prompt Is The Problem
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